You must log in or register to comment.
I have several boxes of these that I’ll never let go, but I have to admit, I ditched the SCSI cables at one point and have no regrets.
Until a few years ago my workplace still had dozens of BNC networking cards, ISDN routers (bought on the cheap a few months before ADSL took off), and Windows 98 SE licenses.
USB ate SCSI in a similar way to HDMI eating DVI so that one makes total sense.
Not throwing out DVI or even VGA cables. I run in to/test older gear way too often to let them go.
Buying things from thrift stores requires tools to make them work with your stuff.
You never know where you’ll be when you need a mini-B usb to 30 pin apple sync cable.
I actually needed a 30pin the other day. I’m glad I still had one
Landline telephones will soon be popular enough to need all these extenders and splitters.
You mean my serial console cables?
The ones wrapped around each 56k modem, entwined with the cable holding its power brick?
Those got cut to make console cables.
I can always make them into regular phone cables later.
I have two of those in my hoard… One new in box still…
I’m sure I’ll never need all 4 of the SCART cables I have, but then maybe I will so I’ll hang onto them just in case.
You could make a scart scarf
Been there, done that…tossed the hd with crypto…
deleted by creator
On a hard drive? I remember a bunch of people messing around with bitcoin when it was new, relatively unknown and considered a niche nerd thing. There were online competitions with money prizes where the “last winner” (eg. third place) would win like one bitcoin.
Fast forward 15 years and the stuff you mined for fun in high school and forgot about on some dusty old computer is worth thousands of dollars.
deleted by creator
Honestly, I kind of wish crypto hadn’t gone to shit with the whole speculation thing… It was just this fun thing where obscure websites would let you buy random shit for laughs sometimes. Then suddenly investors had to try making money off something with no inherent value and ruined it :/
I’ve got 3 boxes. One for power cables, one for signal cables (ethernet, phone, RCA cables, coaxial) and one for usb cables and power adapters.
They’re tote sized and I’m going to need even bigger boxes soon. No way I’m ever getting rid of them.
It’s okay, you wouldn’t be able to locate it in that tangled ball anyway.
But it’s in there. I know it is! I just have to shake the ball hard enough.
There’s a tool sharing program in my neighborhood. You pay like $20 a year for access, and come by, borrow a tool/leave a tool. It’s great as people leave lots of big tools sitting around doing nothing.
I want that for computer parts and wires.
Lets pool our ps/2 keyboard adapters and VGA cords together!
You’ve already got a decent business name for it (minus the “@slrpnk.net” part)!
Neighbourtools. But with fewer vowles
Nghbrtls
Less, not none. The U has to stay to appease the UK regulatory boards.
Fewer
Nghbrtlsy
It needs a catchy theme song. Something like:
Neeeighbour tools…
Everybody needs good neeeighbour toolsand then I don’t know, a saxaphone or something
There is a long running tv drama called Neighbours in Australia. Should just re use that one.
Australian here, too many words
It’ll sound of from what I remember the song sounding like but I don’t actually watch it and have only heard it a few times on TV
I used to watch that show everyday after school. I still vividly remember the theme song.
Neighbours in Australia, yeah!
Coming at ya like a man on fire
Libby and Harold and all the rest
Come and get it all of your chest, yeah!That’s not the one I remember, but I may be getting it mixed up with home and away. It has been almost 15 years since I have seen the show.
I’ve heard home and away has gone to shit recently but I don’t actually watch it because it doesn’t interest me
Beginner move, you go through the box, check all cables, and do one of two things:
-
Get rid of all duplicates but keep one of each type of cable.
-
Catalog and label all cables in the box, make a list of all cables including their numbers. List all known devices that use them, index their usefullness based on how many devices you know use them and how long ago it was that you needed them. The more usefull the cable the more copies you keep, but you allways keep one type.
Just get a bunch of bags or small boxes and sort them into different types, and write on the box what it has. No need to catalogue devices or deduplicate…
Change my mind: two hours of my work is more expensive than all these half defunct cables from 10 years ago. Just throw em away and buy them new when needed. You will only need one or two of them anyway. No more sticky, broken cables, no more cable sorting, no more wasted time and no wasted space.
Never kept just one cable. Always have a spare.
I will pay you to come over and handle my cables. I really like idea number 2, but I have nearly 4 decades of computer cables and 3 decades of audio cables that have gone through several moves. I don’t have the energy or attention span to go through them.
Put on a record, grab a drink, and go to town!
I totally would if I could. However, every attempt I’ve made has ended after a few hours of me trying to see what cable goes with what, testing XLR, TRS, and TS cables, getting distracted, then having a messed up garage for weeks until I put away the boxes of cables.
At least I learned my lesson about trying to combine those boxes with my current known good cables that I use for my PA system. That was a bad weekend.
Oh, your problem is testing, not sorting.
My problem is repeatedly getting distracted. My other problem is that I have more audio cables than I will need in my whole life. Ok, I have a whole lot of problems when it comes to this. It’s my great shame because I’m pretty good at keeping most everything else in order these days.
I have a good sized box of electronics cables. I have three ~80gal storage totes with wheels and one cardboard box full of speaker cables, instrument cables, mic cables, adapters to plug in different devices to PA systems, several wireless receivers that I’m not entirely sure what they go with, and other miscellaneous cables, and I’m not sure how much of it works, how much I can solder back together, and how much just needs to be thrown out. That doesn’t include the smaller tote with my current gear that I bring to gigs.
While writing this comment I realize I could probably just test them with a multimeter, but in the past I’ve plugged them in. This leads to me noodling on the guitar and losing the thread of what I’m doing.
Ideally, I’d get an extra set of cables as a just in case measure, fix what I can fix, and donate all the good ones I don’t use to a broke musician just starting out. But my hyper focus has never manifested in a way that lets me just fucking get it done. I just make a mess and play guitar before giving up several days later and putting it all back because I need to do things in my garage.
Honestly, I like sorting cables, get some good gloves, some headphones and a good podcast and I’ll be done faster than you think.
Audio cables have a long life in general, and are useful for other things as well. Speaker wire can for instance work as spark plug leads:
Computer cables are also fairly easy, unless you are into retro computing you can probably throw out all IDE and SCSI cables, they are useless if you have a computer with the relevant connector anyway, so keep one of each if you are unsure, same goes for old centronics printer cables, cat4 networking cable will work, but only at very slow speeds, throw it out and use cat5e for general purpose, serial (RS232) is useful, keep some, power brick are allways useful, keep them all, USB cables are cheap, replace any USB1 cables with a minimum of a USB2 cable, male USB-A to male USB-A were used before mini USB came along, keep one as a spare, mini USB is still in limited use today, keep 2, micro USB has many different connectors and types, keep 2 normal and one of each of the odd standards.
Video cables: VGA - keep one spare, DVI is still useful, keep two, HDMI/DP - keep but beware that they might not work with the latest specs of the standard. Component, there is little need for it these days, depending on if the cable has a custom connector used for a gaming console or other device, keep, else no need to keep them, composite is the same as above. S-Video same as above.
This might sound harsh, but unless you are into retro computing or retro gaming you mostly won’t need old computer/video cables.
I am an IT guy, my dad is a civil engineer, I get keeping old cables just incase, I have component cables to my PS2 that has almost never been used, the PS2 is from the last slim version, I have an almost brand new original gamecube controller, I have component cables for gamecube that has never been used, I have countless power bricks that I never use, i have a super long cat5e cable that I built when I moved in to my apartment a decade ago, up untill last year I used a custom cat5e cable between my computer and the wall.
I was into retro gaming a while ago, but I have never had a TV here only an old crappy projector, that I have used once.
I am getting tired of keeping the old stuff that I never use, and will probably clear it out in a few years when my annoyance has reached boiling point, and I have more time to deal with it (I am not planning on just throwing away all the stuff, that would be wasteful, when I have more time I will take inventory of all gaming stuff and make a plan on how to best deal with it)
-
Just happened to me yesterday. I needed a 12v power adapter to trigger cable, but I had thrown out the previous one thinking I would never use it.
Thanks, J. Walter Weatherman!
Here I am, literally waiting for delivery of a USB-C to Mini-USB cable that I thought I would never need and got rid of six months ago.
Turns out the little external DVD player I keep around if I ever need to watch a DVD requires it. 🤦🏻♂️
I got around this by keeping several USB-C to USB-C cables around, and buying female USB-C to male whatever adapters. Doesn’t cover everything, but enough that I got rid of a small crate full of cables and only have to keep a half-dozen or so other cables.
I have a pair of Bluetooth headphones with a USB C port, that won’t charge unless the other end of the cable is USB A. So no USB C to C cables. Every time I have to charge them I want to report AKG to like, the EU parliament, or something
Ah that sucks. Have you tried rotating the USB-C cable? I’ve got something like that, but if I flip one end of the USB-C cable it works.
Last move, I collected all cables in a one HUGE box.
After the majority of the unpacking (like I’ll ever finish that) was completed, I sat down with the box and sorted out all the cables.
I kept a sane amount of each cable, at least one and trashed the rest.
I now have half a dozen labeled sterelite dollar store organizers with the cables in them.
add it to your bucket list…
I store all mine in a closet door shoe keeper. Each pocket is 1 type. And I keep as many as will fit in that pocket except for a few special things I keep a ton of. PC power cables, Current USB, HDMI/DP
Same, except I kept all of each kind that have potential use, and set aside any that are technologically obsolete by over two decades so I could throw them out.
That box is still on the shelf as well …
I organized all my cables into like types and put them in gallon sized plastic bags to prevent all that intertangling, at least nominally. I still hardly go into that box though. It’s still a pain in the ass, just less of one.
LPT: intertangeling only happens when cables are looped. Just put them together linke you would crumble a piece of paper and put them in your bottles. No more intertangeling
I did this last time I was unemployed. Garage is super organized now
OMG! I was just about to throw away a box of “cables” I’ve been accruing since college. My wife has been complaining about these cables that never get used. I think I’m going to have to hold off now. Thanks for the warning!
I lugged a box of cables around for 10 years without ever needing one. I finally decided that I was being foolish and donated all of them. Literally the next day I needed one.
Hey! You’re in this meme!
I haven’t donated a cable since then. Never again!
